Soviets liberate Auschwitz
On this day, Soviet troops
enter Auschwitz, Poland,
freeing the survivors of the network of concentration camps—and finally
revealing to the world the depth of the horrors perpetrated there.
Auschwitz was really a group
of camps, designated I, II, and III. There were also 40 smaller
"satellite" camps. It was at Auschwitz II, at Birkenau, established
in October 1941, that the SS created a complex, monstrously orchestrated killing
ground: 300 prison barracks; four "bathhouses" in which prisoners
were gassed; corpse cellars; and cremating ovens. Thousands of prisoners were
also used for medical experiments overseen and performed by the camp doctor,
Josef Mengele, the "Angel of Death."
The Red Army had been
advancing deeper into Poland since mid-January. Having liberated Warsaw and
Krakow, Soviet troops headed for Auschwitz. In anticipation of the Soviet
arrival, the German Gestapo began a murder spree in the camps, shooting sick
prisoners and blowing up crematoria in a desperate attempt to destroy the
evidence of their crimes. When the Red Army finally broke through, Soviet
soldiers encountered 648 corpses and more than 7,000 starving camp survivors.
There were also six storehouses filled with literally hundreds of thousands of
women's dresses, men's suits, and shoes that the Germans did not have time to
burn.
Audie Murphy wounded
On this day, the most
decorated man of the war, American Lt. Audie Murphy, is wounded in France.
Born the son of Texas sharecroppers on
June 20, 1924, Murphy served three years of active duty, beginning as a
private, rising to the rank of staff sergeant, and finally winning a
battlefield commission to 2nd lieutenant. He was wounded three times, fought in
nine major campaigns across Europe, and was credited with killing 241 Germans.
He won 37 medals and decorations, including the Distinguished Service Cross,
the Silver Star (with oak leaf cluster), the Legion of Merit, and the Croix de
Guerre (with palm).
The battle that won Murphy the
Medal of Honor, and which ended his active duty, occurred during the last
stages of the Allied victory over the Germans in France. Murphy acted as cover
for infantrymen during a last desperate German tank attack. Climbing atop an
abandoned U.S. tank destroyer, he took control of its .50-caliber machine gun
and killed 50 Germans, stopping the advance but suffering a leg wound in the
process.
Upon returning to the States,
Murphy was invited to Hollywood by Jimmy Cagney, who saw the war hero's picture
on the cover of Life magazine. By 1950, Murphy won an acting contract
with Universal Pictures. In his most famous role, he played himself in the
monumentally successful To Hell and Back.
Perhaps as interesting as his
film career was his public admission that he suffered severe depression from
post traumatic stress syndrome, also called battle fatigue, and became addicted
to sleeping pills as a result. This had long been a taboo subject for veterans.
Murphy died in a plane crash while on a business trip in 1971. He was 46.
Taken from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviets-liberate-auschwitz
26.01.2015
Taken from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/audie-murphy-wounded
26.01.2015
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